


Recovering slowly, but surely

by Rin_chan32



Category: The Letter (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:24:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rin_chan32/pseuds/Rin_chan32
Summary: After 5 months of being in a coma, Isabella finally wakes up as a completely different person than she was before. Her friends seem a bit different from when she has last seen them, which they mostly seemed distant and paranoid about everything. But, throughout the tragedy that they have all experienced one way or another, they’ll all be able to recover and make it through all of their troubles.





	Recovering slowly, but surely

Isabella opened her eyes for a quick second before quickly closing him, closing her eyes tightly and let out a small weak moan. She lifted her arm to cover her eyes and let out a small hiss from her teeth as she put her arm back down. She felt completely exhausted and felt like she's been asleep for quite a while and her entire body ached. She laid down on and took deep breaths before she slowly and carefully opened her eyes, letting out a groan of pain as the bright light around the room burned her eyes. After a few seconds of the pain, it went away and she tried to move her head to look around the room. She didn’t recognize at all, but from how white the room was and all of the things that were in her arms, she had a hunch that she was in the hospital. But, she didn’t know why she was in the hospital.

Isabella didn’t remember anything before, or what might’ve caused her to turn out like this. She closed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, reaching up her hand to take off the mask around her mouth, it was bothering her at the moment. Although she probably needed it, it did nothing but irritate her when she was trying her best to jog her memory to see why she was in the hospital. After a while, she remembered a person, but it wasn’t someone that she knew. It wasn’t Rebecca, Zach, or Ashton, and it wasn’t the Wrights or Marianne, but it was someone that she was scared, no, terrified of. Her hair was a mess and her dead eyes shined in the dark, the smell of death following her decaying body. Her left ankle was turned to the side and her bloody body limped wherever she went, plus-

Isabella opened her eyes, sighing as she continued to look up at the ceiling. “It probably best to think about it too much...” she muttered to herself quietly. Isabella frowned a bit as she pulled the thin blanket over her delicate body, hoping that it would warm her up, but it didn’t do her any justice.

“Oh, you’re awake already,” A familiar voice called, startling Isabella, making her look over to the side. Ashton was standing at the doorway, letting out a sigh of relief as his once tensed shoulders relaxed and his tightly pressed lips formed into a small smile. Isabella smiled back at him and let out a deep breath when she saw him, feeling her body relax and her troubled thoughts fly out of her head. “How are you feeling?” He asked as he shoved his hands into his pockets, his footsteps echoing around the room as he went over to her bedside and took a seat in the chair next to her.

“I’m… not entirely sure,” Isabella said with a small awkward laugh, “I’m really tired and I’m really sore.” She explained with a small sigh, watching the other close his eyes and nod softly.

“Yea, I can see that,” Ashton said with a small nod, his smile fading his lips as they curved into a slight frown and his chest rising and lowering as he sighed once again. “This… Probably is a stupid question, but do you remember anything that happened before you woke up?” He asked, his voice soft and quiet, almost like he was telling her a secret.

“I,” Isabella paused to think, closing her eyes and trying to think, think about something, anything. She bit her lip as she closing her eyes tighter and tried to go farther back into her memories to find anything to answer his question. “I remember agreeing to go somewhere with Becca and I was running late and—“ she paused, hesitating a bit as she felt her chest tighten up as she imagined those feet standing before her, making her opening her eyes and looking at the male next to her. ‘Should I really tell him?’ she asked herself before she bit her bottom lip and let out a small sigh, closing her eyes again before looking at the male, who was looking at her curiously. “I remember being on the ground and seeing some… feet before me.”

“Shit.” Ashton said almost as soon she finished her small memory, which had her jumped a bit. His fingers tapped on this thigh as he looked at the ground, muttering some things to himself before letting out a small sigh and looking at her.

“Why did you want to know?” Isabella asked, looking at him curiously with her eyebrow raised, making herself ignore the tightness in her chest.

“Because I was thinking about something,” he said as he shook his head and looked back at her, forcing a smile at her and let out a small sigh. It was obvious, to her at least from after years of knowing this dork, that he was hiding something that she didn’t know.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked him after a while, letting out a small sigh as she bit the inside of her mouth.

“Sure, What did you want to ask?”

“What, no, why am I on the hospital?” Isabella asked, making the other one stiffen a bit before a deep breath slowly escaped out of his slightly parted lips.

“You… You got ran over by a car,” Ashton explained, his voice soft and sounded pained, “they put you into a coma because you kept on having seizures.” Isabella’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him confused, not believing his words even though the tone of his voice and his serious facial expression didn’t say anything about… joking.

“R-Really?” She managed to choke out, her eyes widening as she looked into his blue eyes.

“Really, if you don’t believe me then you can always ask Becca it Zach.” He said with a small sigh, which was the umpteenth time that a sigh exited his mouth just from the moment he walked in. Hearing the others names made her stomach turned inside out and her heart drop to the floor in complete worry.

“How are they? Are they okay?” She asked, practically about to jump out of the bed before her sore body pained her arms and her legs being unable to cooperate, plus Ashton’s extended hand that was on her shoulder.

“They’re fine, I talked to them earlier today,” Ashton said, looking at her with a serious expression as he took his hand off of her shoulder. “Becca is at work and she’ll drop by once she gets off and Zach said that he has a freelancing gig all day today.”

“Okay…” Isabella said, letting out a small sigh of relief as she closed her eyes and rested back in the semi-uncomfortable hospital bed. Ashton took his hand off of her shoulder and leaned back in the chair, letting out a small sigh as he softly smiled at her. As he took his hand off of her, Isabella saw something particular that she knew wasn’t there before. She reached her hand out and gently holding his hand in her own, looking at his palm with intensity. His face quickly flushed a dark red and looked at her, struggling to find the right words to say to her as he gently pried his hand away from her. “Belle, what are you-”

“Where did you get those scars?” Isabella interrupted, pointing as his hand. He gave her a confused look as he looked at his hand, a slight frown forming on his lips as he looked at the scars that went across all of his fingers and at the base of his palm. A sigh escaped from him as he flexed his hand, thinking for a while before another sigh came from him and he dropped his hand down on his thigh.

“I… got it a few days after your accident,” he started, his voice soft, but at the same time serious. “We–I went to that— It’s really nothing, you shouldn’t bother yourself with it. I just got it from work.” Ashton said after of while of hesitation, and struggling to find the right words, “I’ll tell you later, I shouldn’t dump everything on you right now.”

“Fine..” Isabella said with a small sigh, knowing that she couldn’t pry anything out of him. Ashton gave her a glance that silently apologized for no telling her how he got them, his chest rising as he let out a deep breath as he looked up at the ceiling, and was probably lost in his own thoughts. Isabella looked down at her arms that were covered in faded scars— which were most likely from her accident— and ivs, which made her bite her lip from thinking about how much they all worried about her. “How long have I been out?” She asked the other suddenly, looking at the male, who seemed quite puzzled at her sudden question.

“Huh?” He asked, making Isabella giggle at his facial expression.

“How long have I been out?” She repeated, “because you said that I got into a coma and-”

“Oh, right,” Ashton interrupted, putting a few curved fingers on his lips as he looked down and cleared his throat. “You been out since October, so around 5 months?” He said questionably, shrugged a bit as he leaned back and looked at the ceiling, again.

“Okay…” Isabella said with a small nod, looking back at her arms before looking at her weak fingers. October, November, December, January… she thought to herself as she bent her fingers back, looking at her lone thumb before looking back up at the boy. “So it’s February?” She asked, tilting her head to the side as much as she could without a sudden rush of pain.

He nodded, “Yea, it’s the first I think…”

“How had Becca been?” She asked, her voice sad as she looked at him, before looking at her hands before her eyes finally settled to an off-grey tile on the hospital floor, nervousness building up in her body.

“She’s… She’s been trying to cope with you being in a coma,” Ashton started with a frown and a sigh, “she- Becca has been freaking out and tried to take the blame for you being like this, she also had a few breakdown recently…”

Her heart dropped, “Becca was like that…?” She asked, her voice softly and full of worry as she watched the other nod.

“Yea, her depression has been kicking her good for the past few months, it worries me a lot to see her like that low.” He mumbled, biting the side of his lip as he looked down at the floor as well.

“Have you told her-”

“She told me that she was going to be in testing all day and that she rather me not call her, but I’ll try to call her in a bit to let her know.” Ashton replied, interrupting her from what she was going to say next.

“I see…” Isabella replied with a small nod, moving her amber eyes to look at the male before looking back at the grey tile again. When she opened her mouth to ask him something else, she was interrupted by a nurse opening the door and looking at the both of them a curiously. She looked at them for a little bit before she pushed the door open and walked out of the room, coming back a few minutes later with some equipment. She turned to Ashton, politely asking him to step out of the room before turning back to Isabella. As he walked out of her hospital room, he fished his phone out of his parka and showed his cracked screen to her before stepping out into the hall.

She could hear his voice and footsteps as he paced outside in the hallway as she watched the nurse in the room prepare her things. The nurse didn’t do nor say too much while she was doing her stuff, she asked her a few questions about how she felt as she changed her iv’s, and then left. Isabella watched her leave the room before she let out a small sigh, closing her eyes for a little before she opened them and looked back down at her arms, for the umpteenth time since she woke up. She bit her lip as she tried to listen to Ashton’s conversation with Rebecca on the phone, but she could only mostly hear his echoing footsteps and picked up a few words. It worried her, she couldn’t help but think about how guilty she felt from being in a coma for 5 months. How did everyone feel about her? Did Becca or Ash it even Zach skip work to be there and check on her? How did her family react? What about-

“Why are you staring so intensely at your arms?”

“Huh!?” Isabella jumped and looked at up at the door to see a snickering Ashton, who was sliding his phone back into pocket. A frown formed on her face as she refrained from saying the insult that was sitting on the tip of her tongue.

“When I came back in, you were looking at your arms like you were trying to find out a big secret or something.” Ashton said as he sat down with a sigh.

“Oh, sorry, I was just thinking about stuff,” Isabella replied with a small nervous laugh, “anyways, what did Becca say?”

“She said that she’ll come after school ends, which is…” he paused as he looked at the time, “about 25-30 minutes? I wasn’t able to tell her the news because one of her students did something.”

“Ah okay…” Isabella said as she nodded, putting her hands together as she looked up at the ceiling, thinking of what they could do for 30 minutes so they could wait for Becca to come. “How’s the channels on tv?” She asked him curiously as she looked at him, figuring that if they were there for 5 months, then they would’ve known how the tv is.

“Shitty,” Ashton said simply as he leaned back and looked at the blank tv, “there’s nothing good on it, the only decent thing is the news but it gets repetitive after a which.”

“I see…” Isabella said as she nodded, looking at the tv for a while before looking around for the remote. They watched a terrible tv show that was on before Ashton got fed up with it and turned it off, then they played a game of I-spy for the rest of the time before Ashton got a call from Rebecca.

“I’ll be back.” The male said as he answered his phone and walked out of the room, walking down the hallway as his voice echoed down the hall. Isabella let out a sigh as she watched him leave the room before looking out the window that was next to her. She took in a deep breath and held it, slowly exhaling it as she looked at the light blue sky that was blocked by buildings from the city. She had to admit that she did miss being outside just a bit. Yea, it was February and it was most likely cold— in which she had a strong dislike for the biter cold weather— but she still missed being out and doing things with her friends, like the old times. Her amber eyes followed some birds that flew by, slight excitement filling her body as she watched them go by before she closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the bed. “I hope that things can go back as they were…” she muttered to herself as she exhaled.

“But I can’t believe that they had the audacity to actually cheat on the test when I was in the room!” A familiar voice echoed angrily in the hallway, Isabella’s stomach doing somersaults when she heard her voice.

“That kid must’ve had guts if they thought it would be a good idea to do that with you as the teacher.” Ashton’s voice echoed alone with Rebecca’s their footsteps and voices getting louder as they approached her room.

“And if that’s not the things that upsets me, it’s the honest that that they acted like nothing was wrong and tried to persuade me to give them a good grade!” As her voice got louder as they drew nearer, she could see her pink hair, which looked longer than what it was when she last seen her, and her head was turned towards the male. Isabella felt the palms of her hands grow clammy and her heart started to beat faster, tearing her eyes away from them and looked back at her arms, taking deep breaths as she closed her eyes softly. Their voices were gradually getting softer in Isabella’s head as she focused on her hands to lessen her worries and to relax, But was interrupted by-

“Belle?” Isabella blinked as she looked at Rebecca, who was standing at the doorway with her eyes widened and a look of surprise on her face. Her cheeks were a light shade of red, which was probably from the rant she told Ashton, and her bag was loosely hanging on the tips of her fingers. The pink haired girl stayed there for a while, which somewhat worried Isabella because she had no idea what was going through her head or what she might do. But, the surprised look was soon replaced with a happy smile as she let out a sigh of relief, tears filling her eyes as she dropped her bag and went over to her, giving her a hug as another sigh left her mouth. Isabella hugged her back and closed her eyes tightly, holding the others body close to hers and let the good memories of the two of them come back to her as she listened to the others small sobs of happiness. “I’m so happy that you’re okay…” Rebecca whispered softly as she pulled away from the hug, leaving her hands lingering on her shoulders.

“Yea, I’m glad that you’re okay too.” She replied with a small smile, letting out a small huff as she put her hands on her lap. Rebecca took her hands off of her shoulders and covered her mouth as she turned around and closed her eyes tightly as she started to cry some more, Ashton going over to her and wrapping his arms around her to give her comfort. She could hear him whisper soft reassuring words in her ear as he rubbed her back to calm her down, something a parent would seem to do to their crying child. Isabella bit her inner lip as she watched them, feeling a small pang of jealousy in her chest for some reason. She knew that they were close, since they are childhood friends and everything, but… she feels jealous by this, by them being this close even.

After a while Rebecca pulled away from the male, the two of them whispering softly, wiping her wet face with her wrist as she nodded to his quiet question. She let out a small sigh before she turned around and looked back at Isabella, sitting down on the bed next to her and out her hands on her face. “How are you? Does anything hurt? How do you feel? What about-” Rebecca’s motherly instinct kicked in and she started asking her multiply questions all at once. Instead of finding this annoying, like a lot of people probably would when they just woke up from being out for 5 months, Isabella laughed at this and took her hands off of her face and held them.

“I’m fine, I feel as fine as I always did. I feel a bit sore in places, but besides that I’m feeling perfect!!” Isabella reassured her with a big smile, letting go of one of her hands and poking her tear-stained cheek. “I should be the one asking you all of the questions!”

Rebecca chuckled softly, “besides having a shite week, I’m feeling wonderful.” She replied, the both of them laughing at her sarcasm.

“I could tell from what I heard from your rant when you were coming down the hall.” Isabella replied, smiling at the other as she let out a gentle sigh. From there, Rebecca started to tell her about her week, which it didn’t sound like the most pleasant week that she had heard from her— which was mostly filled with misbehaving students and uncooperative co-workers, plus the occasional late or sick students that showed up (quite a lot since it’s still winter and all). The two of them then filled her in on what she had missed while she was in her coma, which wasn’t that much— which Ashton said (and was a complete lie).

Rebecca said that they didn’t do that much in November, they celebrated Ashton’s 30th birthday, then they celebrated Christmas— and Rebecca very generously stored all of Isabella’s presents that she received from them in her apartment— and they just hung out during New Years, nothing really special about it. And another thing that happened was-

“You won 2 cases in a row!?” Isabella exclaimed, her eyes widened as she munched on the hospital food that the nurse gave her. Ashton shrugged a bit and rubbed the back of his head from his awkwardness, his cheeks turning into a light shade of pink.

“I-It’s not that big of a deal…” He mumbled softly, jumping a bit when Rebecca leaned over and punched his arm.

“I told you Ashton, it is a big deal, especially since they were huge cases— in which you told me that they were more difficult than the usual ones that you’re usually assigned!!” Rebecca protested, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink once again from the anger.

Isabella nodded in agreement, “Becca’s right Ash, you should be more happy about it. Because honestly, how many times have we heard you complain about not being assigned to these cases, and here you are not taking it seriously,” she replied with a sigh, frowning a bit before she looked over at Rebecca, “did you guys do anything about it?”

“We tried,” She said with a small shrug, “but all Ashton wanted to do was sleep, so that’s what we gave him.”

“Boo…” Isabella said with her cheeks puffed out, looking at the embarrassed boy— which was funny (and a tad bit cute)— with a disappointed look on her face. “Really Ash?” She said with a frown and her cheeks puffed out.

“W-Well…” he started, his face growing redder from the both of the girls looking at him, rubbing the back of his head again as he looked at the floor, his fingers gently playing with the ends of his long hair as he tried to think of a good excuse for his celebratory nap. “I-I… forgot to mention that Becca is writing a book.” He said, looking back at the two of them, clearing his throat after finishing his sentence. As if their conversation a few minutes ago never happened, Isabella moved her head over to Rebecca— who was covering her now-red face with embarrassment.

“Really Becca!?” Isabella asked her, her amber eyes glittering in happiness and fascination from the news.

“Y-Yea,” She headed, rubbing her temples for a bit before she pulled her hand away and looked at Isabella, nodding in agreement and smiling at her softly. “I’m doing something with Zach with what I’m doing.” Rebecca explained, earning a happy smile from the girl next to her.

“I’m glad that you guys are all doing something!!” Isabella exclaimed happily, clapping softly before she leaned back in the hospital bed and looked up at the ceiling. She was tired, no, exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep. But at the same time, she didn’t, she wanted to stay with her friends and catch up on the 5 months that she missed with them. As she looked up at the boring white ceiling, she felt her eyelids grow heavy and feeling herself get sleepier and sleepier and-

“Are you tired?”

Ashton’s voice made her eyes snap open and look at him curiously, which made him chuckle softly. “You look exhausted, do you want us to leave so you can go to sleep?”

“Um,” she paused, and looked at the two of them waiting for her answer, “Can you guys stay here for a bit longer? Until I am completely out then you can go ahead and leave.”

They exchanged looks before Rebecca looked over at Isabella and nodded with a smile, “Yea, we can do that.”

“Thank you…” Isabella said with a smile before she lowered her upper body on the bed and got herself comfortable. She looked up at the ceiling and allowed her eyes to get heavy and her body to relax completely. Her head moved to where the window was as she let her eyes closed and allowed herself to go to sleep once again. Ashton’s and Rebecca’s soft whispers as they talked lulled her to fall deeper into sleep as exhausted came over to her. It wasn’t long until their conversation came to a halt and the lower half of the bed lifted up, a small shuffle of footsteps following after it. Isabella’s sleepy eyes opened to see what happened, looking in the reflection of the window as she saw Rebecca and Ashton quietly leave the room together. She looked out the window and the bright lights of Luxbourne City before her eyes closed against their own will and she fell asleep. 


End file.
